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Microsoft leadership shake up following COO departure

Microsoft has announced a slew of changes to its senior leadership team follow the announcement its chief operating operator Kevin Turner is jumping ship.

In an email to all staff last week, Microsoft head honcho Satya Nadella announced the news Turner would be leaving the company to take up the CEO role Citadel Securities.

Turner has been the COO of Microsoft since 2005.

“Kevin has made a tremendous impact at Microsoft over the past 11 years. He built the sales force into the strategic asset it is today with incredible talent while at the same time more than doubling our revenue and driving customer satisfaction scores to the highest in company history,” Nadella said of Turner.

As a result of his departure, Nadella said he made the decision to form one unified senior leadership team. Turner's responsibilities look to be divided among five different executives at Microsoft.

“It’s very important to have “one feedback loop” across all parts of the company with customer value and satisfaction at the centre,” he explains.

The new roles are as follows:

Judson Althoff will lead the Worldwide Commercial Business, which will focus on the commercial segments, inclusive of EPG, Public Sector, SMS&P, DX and Services.

Jean-Philippe Courtois will lead Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, which span all of Microsoft’s 13 areas across our North America and international businesses as well as the global Marketing and Operations organisation.

Chris Capossela will lead the Worldwide Marketing and Consumer Business, which includes CCG, MSA and PSM, OEM, and Microsoft Retail Stores, in addition to his current worldwide marketing team.

Kurt DelBene will now also lead IT and Operations, in addition to Corporate Strategy.

Amy Hood will now also lead the current SMSG finance team and WWLP, in addition to the central finance team.

The new roles are effectively immediately, although Turner will stay with Microsoft through to the end of July.

“For the past year, Kevin and I have spoken a great deal about the transformation we are enabling our customers to drive. We have come a great distance, and we need to continue to reach for the next level of customer centricity and obsession in everything we do — sales, marketing, services and product development,” Nadella says.

Althoff and Courtois will report directly to Nadella and join the senior leadership team effective immediately.

Courtois will take full accountability for the Microsoft North America business and Althoff will remain as acting lead for day-to-day operations until a replacement for him is announced.

Together they are working on a plan for the functions comprised in today’s Worldwide Marketing and Operations team, given it will span both of their organisations in the future, Nadella explains.

“There is no doubt the world is changing — and Microsoft must evolve with it and ahead of it,” Nadella says.

“Microsoft’s mission is universal, and I believe our values and high ethical standards are timeless. But we must apply them in a world that demands more solutions that are local in nature,” he says.

“Growing globally requires local capability to leverage all of Microsoft’s innovation, marketing and operations in the context of local opportunities and partnerships while overcoming constraints,” adds Nadella.

“This means we must do better at surfacing and trusting the insight from local teams on what it takes to drive our customers’ success. At the same time, we must empower the local teams with world-class global support,” he says.

“When it comes to our Worldwide Commercial Business we have an unparalleled opportunity to translate our products into customer solutions, drive new partner momentum and help businesses of all sizes in every country not just use digital technologies but become digital companies themselves.

“The senior leadership team and I all agree that each subsidiary needs to maintain the financial accountability to deliver on today’s commitments while gaining new capability and flexibility for local innovation and optimisation to drive long-term growth,” Nadella continues.

“I’m thrilled to have two talented leaders, promoted from our field organisation, step forward to join the senior leadership team with their depth of experience in our current business and shared passion to drive transformation.”